It was Easter, or some other holiday in which the hotel was slow and people were having family dinners. It was just me and my boy breezy's girlfriend, standing around and wasting time; we had no guests. Then one shows up: this old man, thin, grey hair, a Fred Sanford-esque beard. He had this presence. I don't know if anyone has ever met anyone famous before, not self important but comfortable in their notoriety, but when you notice something different about them its like the air changes.
As he asks us questions about the sandwiches: which desserts we like and what about the fruit down here? How fresh is it? our human resources manager walks up and shakes his hand. "can I get a picture with you sir?" another guest had arrived by then and as the old man and the hour manager walk back to the restaurant to get his camera, we question him.
"who is that older guy?" working in the retail/ hospitality industry, you know never to refer to a person as old, or fat, or ugly. You find other ways to say these things. The man was clearly old, but also, he was clearly older than our manager.
"girl that's Dick Gregory! Legendary commedian! Great man." the man shuffled his mind around making his own decisions about what he wanted, and as we were preparing his sandwich Mr Gregory returned. The man seemed just as enamored as our manager did, asking him questions and praising. Meanwhile I imdb'd Mr Gregory on my phone and read up on him while they were distracted by conversation. He was the #81 greatest comic of all time according to commedy central.
A few minutes later, Mr Gregory had decided on some strawberries and watermellon, and the four of us stood at the register. Mr Gregory included breezy's girl and I in his light conversation.
"what's your name?"
"Joy. "
"Joy... You know you look like my wife."
I smiled at that and we talked about his wife, his 10 kids, the books he wrote. None of this in a bragging way, but just in conversation.
At one point things got a little sketchy for me. Not in a scary way, but its clear that his beliefs and mine are a bit different than mine. In addition to being an activist, he's also a grand conspiracy theorist. He told us about where he was during 9/11 (this is an abridged version of what he said):
"I was supposed to go to new York, but I was talking to my friend, a Frenchman, and when I told him where I was going he told me to stay home. He said he had heard things about new York getting blown up. He was afraid for me and asked me to stay where I was, not to go anywhere. I told my wife and she said he was crazy. But I didn't go. We know what happened... When I went to call him and ask him how he knew, his wife told me he was dead."
I honestly don't know whether to believe that story. I mean, it could be true... Then he said things about the denzel Washington movie that had just come out, the one with Paula Patton where he- "deja vu", that's what its called. So anyway, he said that movie, and "men in black" (the part about the memory erasers), and I think another sci fi will smith movie, were all based on fact. He said that the government has satelites that can turn back time for their benefit. I hate to say it but at this point I started to think he was a bit kooky, because of course I believe that the only person with power over time is God. Breezy's girl was feeling me too, cuz she was doing this thing she does where she starts to tap my foot with hers when people say or do craziness in her presence. So we're listening... but I think we'd made our decision. He said some other things, some less crazy things, about eating well and animal chemicals and the environment. We talked for about an hour. I don't remember why he left but when he did, breezy's girl and I had the 8 ] look on our faces.
I saw him again this summer and asked if he remembered me. He said he did, I was the one that looked like his wife. Still sweet as before.
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3 comments:
i love that he remembered you! he won't like you anymore after this post! lol. 10 kids!? no indeed. this is not a clown car. i will repeat that until blue in the face if necessary. lmao @ the look on y'alls faces and stace def. does the shoe kick thing. one of my friends-- can't remember who-- also pinches me!! jerk.
whoa. I knew of him as an activist. i didn't know he was a comedian too.
I believe him. Not saying i'm a consp. theorist but i do believe whatever we see in movies has SOOOOOO happened at least 5 years ago.
LOL at the shoe kick! I LOVE IT!
Jam- Yeah it was so sweet that he remembered me! Yeah 10 kids with the same wife they've been with forever.
Stace- I had never heard of him though I had seen him on tv. I think some of that stuff could be true, but its just hard for me to wrap my head around the time machine talk. She was killing me with the toe tap, lol.
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